


To Love Another Person (To Be Forbidden To Die)

by artsyspikedhair



Category: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, Les Amis de l'ABC - Freeform, Requited Love, Revolution, Suicidal Thoughts, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 12:13:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4786832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyspikedhair/pseuds/artsyspikedhair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marius Pontmercy was going to die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Love Another Person (To Be Forbidden To Die)

**Author's Note:**

> I am not French and haven't read the book in while, so forgive me if I am wrong with certain events' details.

Marius Pontmercy was going to die. 

Marius Pontmercy knew he was going to die. He knew it when he left his grandfather's house, he knew it when he decided to go to college, he knew it when he missed a day, when he went to live with Courfeyrac, when he met Eponine and Azelma, when he quit his job. He spent his days thinking, but the more he thought, the more he was sure. He was good for very little, and the world would be better off without him. He knew he could never be his father, he could never be enthralled in anything the way he was with Napoleon. He resented the Les Amis for making him change, resented himself for resenting them, and spent most of his days wandering the streets, thinking of ways to die unknown and unfound.

Then Cosette looked Marius in the eye, and his obsession changed from death to her. He spent every waking moment attempting to gather the courage to go for his daily walk. He still felt worthless, but he felt if this one woman could love him, he'd have worth. Cosette consumed his thoughts, making him nicer. He let Eponine use his mirror, for he saw she was poorer than him. He did not notice the way she looked at him afterwards, like the sun had fallen and turned human. Marius had no reason to believe himself worthy of love, so when his darling Cosette was in danger, he simply stood, watching Monsieur Thenardier lie, threaten, and bound and gag his beloved Cosette's father. Marius was frozen with fear, but knew it was no excuse. His father never froze with fear. His thoughts told him he was a coward undeserving of love in that instant, and his actions did not prove him wrong.

Eponine found Cosette's house on a good day. Javert had saved Jean Valjean, Marius' brain chemistry had lifted their oppressing weight for a while, and all was well. Cosette might love him back, and his thoughts finally ceased to respond in a way that would cause his nerves to give up. Maruis had written about love for weeks, and he left his writings for Cosette to find, finally believing he could be loved back. 

Cosette found him one night, and he discovered he was not the only one obsessing over eye contact. She loved him. They talked of everything and nothing, of their pasts and possible futures, and in the last hour of the night, revealed their names. The two had a mere five years apart, which seemed like both nothing and a lifetime to them. They were completely blissful each night for four months. Marius slept during the day, occasionally accompanying Courfeyrac to Les Amis de l'A'B'C meetings at the Musain. 

But then those four months ended. Eponine warned Valjean about her father's gang potentially robbing them, Valjean misunderstood the warning, and Cosette was being sent to England with Jean Valjean the next day. The end of Marius' romance was the resurfacing of his dangerous thoughts, which had actually been popping up during the days before, almost as warnings. 

Marius Pontmercy was going to die, because he was determined to. 

Little did Marius know, his neighbor was going to war as well, for the same reason he did. She was going to die for her first crush, a truly tragic cause of death. Her brother would die as well that night, as Marius would learn. 

But Marius knew nothing of this. He felt the least he could do was be loyal to his friends this one last time. He felt the least he could do was die the way his father didn't, by an artillery man's hand. Marius wanted to die, wanted his suffering to be over and his selfishness along with it. 

He achieved what he came for, partially. His friends were not dependent on him, but his arrival saved their lives a bit longer. Sadly, this did not kill him. He eased Eponine's last moments, discovered love in a place he did not know he could. He was wounded, and ready, and willing; but Cosette Fauchelevent saved him a second time, defying life. Valjean cfound Marius, as well as plety of other dying but not-yet-dead men, and carried them home through the sewer. The other men died anyway, as Valjean's strength wavered in the sewer and he could only carry one man. Marius would never find out who these men were, but he did know who they were not. Not Combeferre, who's cause of death was three bayonets to the chest, but possibly Courfeyrac, who's body was never found. Marius survived the barricades, a fate he never wished to have. 

He died two year later, almost to the date. Monparnasse broke into the Pontmercy home and shot him the chest, stealing his wedding ring in the process. Jean Valjean had been dead about 14 months.

Marius Pontmercy did what he had sent out to do. Cosette was never the same, and she was the only other person besides Marius' grandfather at the funeral. 

And Marius? He felt what he hadn't felt since he woke up after the barricades. He felt regretful.


End file.
